Dive Brief:
- The Hershey Company appointed a company veteran and former Procter & Gamble executive to succeed CFO Steven E. Voskuil, according to a securities filing and press release. The outgoing finance chief is retiring in early 2027 after serving in the role for seven years.
- Dave Hulays, 54, most recently served as senior VP of finance at the Pennsylvania-based candy giant he joined in 2012, and has a combined 30 years of financial experience at Hershey and P&G. He took the CFO seat on Wednesday, according to the release.
- "Dave is a proven, enterprise-minded finance leader who has helped shape nearly every corner of this business, from our commercial and supply chain organizations to our growth agenda," said Kirk Tanner, president and CEO of Hershey, said in a statement in the release. "He leads with rigor, accountability and courage.”
Dive Insight:
The changing of the guards comes as public company CFO retirements touched an eight-year high in the first half of 2026, leading more companies to choose younger and first-time CFOs to lead their finance teams.
Voskuil, who also previously served as CFO at Kimberly-Clark for eight years, said in a social media post Wednesday that he’d stay on at Hershey through early Q2 of 2027 to help smooth the transition, noting that he’d had the “privilege” of helping prepare Hulays for the CFO role for several years. Voskuil said his next chapter will ultimately include relocating with his wife to Texas to be closer to their grandchildren.
Hulays’ compensation will include an annual base salary of $725,000 and a target annual incentive award opportunity equal to 85%, which rose to 100% on the effective date of his appointment. He will also participate in a long-term incentive program at a target equal to $2 million.
The new CFO is taking the finance reins of an iconic company that is undergoing change while it has also been navigating higher costs related to the cocoa and sugar that are key to its products.
Morningstar analyst Erin Lash wrote that “seismic change is not necessary to steady the ship” at Hershey as the cost pressures that dampened gross margins in fiscal 2025 have eased, and the company has “locked in” supply for fiscal 2026.
“Moreover, we’ve held that Hershey has been prudently raising prices, altering packaging, and extracting inefficiencies to blunt the hit,” Lash wrote in an Aug. 3 note.
In March, Hershey announced it was consolidating its sweet, salty and protein brands into one, as the company best known for Reese’s and the chocolates that carry its name has been building itself into a snacking powerhouse that includes SkinnyPop popcorn and Dot’s homestyle Pretzels, according to CFO Dive sister publication Food Dive.
The company reported net income of $457.7 million for the fiscal second quarter ended June 28, an increase of 629% compared to the year-earlier period, while consolidated net sales rose 6.6% to $2.78 billion.
“We delivered another strong quarter, with resilient demand across segments despite supply challenges, while price realization and productivity initiatives drove margin recovery,” Voskuil said on the earnings call, according to a company transcript.
